Are your walls, floors hazardous to your health?

Wednesday

Oct 20, 2010 at 8:43 AMOct 20, 2010 at 8:46 AM

By TINA LAMFree Press Staff Writer

DETROIT - The same group that found high levels of lead in toys in the past few years has tested 3,300 samples of new wallpaper and flooring and found high amounts of lead, cadmium, mercury, arsenic and phthalates that it says are hazardous to humans, especially children.The Ecology Center of Ann Arbor, Mich., said its findings show that restrictions should be on dangerous substances in a wide range of home improvement products. No prohibitions exist now although four types of phthalates were banned in 2008 from children’s products and the amount of lead a toy can have is limited.Jeff Gearhart, the center’s research director, said parents can now buy a phthalate-free rubber ducky for a child but bring it home to a bedroom with vinyl flooring that can expose the child to the banned substance around the clock.The Consumer Product Safety Commission said it hadn’t seen the study results, but the results should be viewed cautiously.

Dangerous decorThe Consumer Product Safety Commission cautioned Tuesday against drawing too many conclusions from tests done on wallpaper and flooring by the Ann Arbor-based Ecology Center, saying that just because a product contains the chemicals doesn’t mean it’s hazardous.The center’s testing of 3,300 samples of home improvement products found lead in the glazes of ceramic tiles and four types of phthalates - chemical additives banned from children’s products - in vinyl flooring.The center said the tests showed enough chemicals of concern - linked to everything from asthma to autism - that people may want to stick to safe hardwood floors and painted walls. Researchers discovered that nearly all the wallpapers had phthalates and nearly half had medium to high levels of lead, cadmium, chromium, tin or antimony.Among flooring, mostly vinyl, some products contained nearly 13 percent phthalates by weight; in children’s products, only 0.1 percent is allowed. Studies in the past two years found phthalates in indoor dust in homes with vinyl floors and showed that children in those homes had higher levels of asthma and autism.Other health effects of phthalates and heavy metals include hormone disruption and possible early puberty, birth defects, learning disabilities, liver toxicity and reproductive problems.“If we don’t want these chemicals in toys, we certainly don’t want them in our floors,” Gearhart said.He said children spend much of their time on the floor, and all people spend 90 percent of their time indoors, making them particularly vulnerable to exposure from chemicals in floors and walls.The center did its testing two ways: For metals, it used an X-ray fluorescence machine, which can measure how much lead is near the surface; for phthalates, it sent samples to a laboratory.The Consumer Product Safety Commission was skeptical.“To determine if there is a risk to children of exposure to a product, you have to do more science than just identify that a product contains a chemical,” said spokeswoman Patty Davis in an e-mail. “The mere presence of a chemical in a product does not make a product a hazard. It is the exposure to particular levels of the chemical under particular conditions that makes the hazard.” Diana Zuckerman, president of the National Research Center for Women and Families, said she has no doubt the center’s work is right. It has previously done testing for lead in children’s toys.“We knew all along that the focus on children’s toys was important but that kids can be exposed in many ways,” she said. “The cumulative effect of all these exposures is what makes them harmful.” Banning phthalates and lowering lead levels in toys was not as difficult as it might be to prohibit those substances from home improvement products, she said.“Who can argue about keeping toys safe? But it’s different when we’re talking about products we all use,” she said.Gearhart said the key point of the study is that the products have alternatives, and that’s what consumers who have concerns should aim for.Cork, bamboo, hardwood and linoleum floors are safe, as are plain painted walls or wallpaper that is not plastic-coated to make it easier to scrub.Gearhart said the main exposure to chemicals and metals in home improvement products comes when they break down over time. Vinyl flooring breaks down from the abrasion of foot traffic and frequent cleaning; the same is true of lead-containing glazes on ceramic tiles.Wear and tear on floors unleashes the substances and contributes to household dust, where it can be inhaled. Small children may eat dust.In wallpaper, the plasticizers that are in the coating, which contains the phthalates, are not chemically bound to the paper and over time are released into the air, Gearhart said.

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